yes, it's my third entry today, I should really just wait til the end of the day to update it. fv(k it, it's my log and I'll do whatever the hell I like. Did a round of planks (front and side), some soft tissue stuff for my shoulders and some bird dogs during commercial breaks in the film I was watching (No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. I'm a big Coen bros fan and I would say NCFOM is my favourite. Or Fargo, but anyway I digress...). Shoulders have been bugging me all last week (90% of my reason for taking a deload week); hurting when I do a lateral raise type movement, even with bent arms (which usually fixes that). I was worried by this.

Tonight I made a shoulder breakthrough though. Usually my soft-tissue work for my shoulder is a pretty half arsed affair where I put a hockey ball between the back of my shoulder and a wall and move around. It's awkward as hell and never seems to help. However, tonight I tried lying down and putting ball up where the scapula meets the armpit, and waggling around. Hurt like a bitch! Then I tried pushing it in good and tight, and doing lying external/internal rotations. Did this for a few minutes, heroically handling the pain, then tried a few lateral raises. Success! No pain at all!

So, what I'm going to do is (seeing as I only have time for 3 workouts this week): lower body on tuesday; upper body on wednesday but nothing shoulder intensive, so no pressing or lateral raises, and loads of snatches, pull ups, rows etc; and another lower body on friday. Every day from Monday to Friday I am going to do my shoulder soft tissue and mobility stuff, then take the weekend off for it to rest up then boom! Healthy, mobile shoulder.

Also, because I had a beast of a day of doing core stuff, I'm just going to let my abs recover. I'll do some soft tissue work and that's it. Also, I'm going to double my fish oil intake this week as an experiment.

100k although not technically a PR, is a PR with good form. Really felt it in my glutes which makes me happy. Time will tell if I hyperextended and hurt my back, but I'm feeling pretty positive.

DBSS

12.5k x 815 x 817.5 x 820k x 8

Boom! The 20s are conquered. Sets of 10 next time. I had set the 20k dumbells as a long term goal, but now I want more. MORE! If I keep adding weight at the rate I am, I should get up to the 30s by the end of the month. Doing a set with the 30k dumbells'll be pretty badass. I wish I'd measured my legs before I started this program so I could see how much I've added to my things, but I'm not really into measuring bodyparts. It only ever leads to disappointment.

GHRs

bodyweight x 3. 3 sets.

Hmm. I can't tell if I am getting much better, I just try and do my best every time.

Stir-The-Pot

3 sets of 5 reps (each direction). I moved my feet in closer each set to make it harder.

Sled Dragging (all weights +sled)

25k50k75k

Another PR for today's workout. I am a machine. It was hard as hell and I was close to giving up but I didn't. Very proud of myself.

All in all, a damn good workout. Was it due to the deload? Maybe. It's hard to imagine I'd have hit 3 PRs normally, but I dunno. Also, I had a bit of a barney with my flatmate this morning which meant I got to the gym pretty pissed off. That always helps. Whatever the reason, I kicked ass today, and I'm damn pleased with myself.

upper body, ridiculous DOMS in my legs from yesterday's PR-fest but back feels fine. My legs are a bit sore for wall squats so might not do any tonight but I'll do some side planks (KPj style) and soft tissue work for legs and shouders.

it was all going so well. I was pretty damn happy with myself. I mean, an 80k back squat is embarrassingly pathetic but I was pretty happy considering it had been so long. My depth was good, and my back wasn't hurting in the least. Not even a little. After my double at 80 i figured I'd do a light, back off set.

And then it happened. 2nd rep at 60 my back buckled. I mean seriously buckled. It arched way more than it has ever arched before and the pain was excruciating. fv(k $h1t bollocks bastard. It was all going so well! What a fv(k nightmare. I'm so pissed off.

The really annoying thing is it hurt more this time than when I hurt it deadlifting at the start of summer, so god only knows how long it's going to take to go back to normal. What a bastard.

I did some bodyweight single leg hip thrusts after to try and convince myself my session wasn't over, but I knew deep down it was.

so what did I learn?

Well, firstly I've learned that my lower back is pretty much untrained now, so although my legs are strong enough to squat, I have to be conscious of the fact my lower back is the limiting factor.

Secondly, I realise now that waiting for my back pain to disappear completely before I try squatting is a waste of time. My back is never going to be completely pain free until I stengthen the movement patterns. When my back is a little achey in the mornings, by the time I've foam rolled and done my mobility and core stuff, it feels fine. So I'm not going to wait another 3 months before attempting to squat again, more like a couple of weeks.

I hope to be squatting again the week after next, but I have to be realistic. It may well be into September before I can try again. Oh well, I guess it's back to the damn split squats and poofy looking hip thrusts.

Also, when I do start squatting again, it's going to be super light. I intend to squat twice a week, using 5/3/1 percentages the first session and doing 5 sets of 10 at 50% the second. The really embarrassing thing is I am going to use 60k as my max. Maybe it's too conservative, but frankly I can't face the idea of putting up with another injury.

The one saving grace for today's workout is that I can squat, I just have to be much more careful from now on.

I'll report back tomorrow as to how my back's feeling. That's the most important thing just now; assessing the damage.

over the course of the day it has become apparent that my back is definitely hurt, and I think realistically it will be at least a week before I can attempt to squat again.

I also know exactly what happened to cause the injury. I lost the tightness in my upper back in a big way. That caused my whole back to buckle and forced my lower back into EXTREME lordosis, thus hurting my back.

Ways I am going to fix this:

1. Start light as a feather when I attempt to squat again.2. Back extensions done with very slow tempo (once the hurt is gone)3. Good mornings with an EXTREMELY light weight and the most hardcore arch I can get. I'm not an idiot, I realise these could be pretty dangerous4. Supramaximal front squat walkouts. I can hear the sound of heads being scratched. What you do is you basically hold a bar that's heavier than your max in a front squat grip, walk it out, hold it for a while then rack it. Trains your upper back. Going to have the safetys in the rack set only about an inch or so down from where I'll be holding it just in case I need to drop it.5. Start light with the squats. Bears repeating.

so there we go. So much of my lifting involves some kind of problem solving these days. I should start charging people to write corrective programs for them.

I really hope someone else with a bad back is reading this log and using things I try to help themselves, otherwise this whole thing has been a massive waste of time

going out drinking tonight so who knows what sort of state I'll be in tomorrow...

lower body. I squatted. I know I shouldn't have but I did. I had planned to just do a whole workout with the sled but there were chumps in playing badminton. I know I could've trained upper body but I didn't want to, and had just spent like 20 mins doing loads of lower body mobility stuff. Anyway...

Box Squats

worked up to 40k (so embarrassing) and just did sets of 3. Did about a million sets. Back felt fine during although my knees were hurting. I hope I don't suddenly develop knee trouble, that would be the icing on the cake. Also, I don't seem to be able to get my shins vertical like you're supposed to...

Hip Thrusts

60k x 8 x 3

decided to do these for higher reps for the next month or so. Get a real burn in the glutes. I hold the top position for a 3 count.

GHR

BW x 3 x 3

sore as ever...

Terminal Knee Extensions (number is position on the stack)

4 x 153 x 15 x 2

I did these as a response to the sore knees when I was squatting. 4 was a little heavy for a first sets. I'm going to start on the 2nd plate and do sets of 20. I've always thought my VMO was underdeveloped, so this should help. This exercise will now be part of my lower body routine from now on.

Jesus Raises/Leg Lowering Superset

10 (BW)/8 x 3

"Jesus Raises" are back raises where I extend my arms out to the side to make it harder. I didn't know what else to call them. Held the top position for 5 seconds and squeezed my glutes as hard as I could. Surprisingly hard! Leg lowering was same as always.

An ok workout. Back feels a little achey but tomorrow will be the real test. I intend to spend the rest of the day as horizontal as possible and rest up. I shouldn't really have squatted but I regret nothing!

I think though, that I'm not ready for squatting yet. I need to get my hamstrings stronger so I can sit back properly; I need to get my VMO stronger to protect my knees; and I need to get my back stronger so I can maintain the arch.

Also, my technique totally sucks. This is all too apparent. I have a plan though: In 3 weeks, I'm going to go get coaching from a certain member of this forum, depending on his schedule of course. I think that without proper coaching I'll never be able to squat heavy or injury free so I have to do it, and this guy's the only person I trust. Why in 3 weeks? Because that'll be my next 5/3/1 cycle. Deloading's for pussies.

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